that's according to the energy department. and each household spent on average $2,912 on just gas last year. and the prices just keep climbing. our paul ver cammen is in los angeles. >> and californians get hammered by high gas taxes, 67 cents a gallon. that's the second highest in the nation behind new york, and the people polling into this station say this is just ridiculous. downtown los angeles is jammed with drivers, but not gas stions. here's a soul-crushing $5 a gallon for regular. i noticed you just spent $50 for just under ten gallons of gas. how you feeling? >> i'm actually shocked. i expected it to be about $4.02 today, and then i drove up here and saw it's $5.02, but i ran out of gas, my light was on. i had no choice. >> reporter: so what's driving up gas prices? >> the spike is caused we two things. the rapid run-up in crude oil prices and by refinery maintenance on the west coast and the transition to the summer grade of gasoline. >> reporter: those surging oil prices are the biggest component of gas prices and t